Second Genesis

Grey blinked.

He hadn’t expected Elowen to suddenly start sobbing.

For a second he just stared at her, completely caught off guard, then bent down beside her, put Brad down, and placed a palm against her back. He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but Elowen moved before he could get the words out, throwing herself into his arms and holding onto him so tightly Grey was half convinced she might have snapped him in two if his body hadn’t undergone so many changes recently.

"Thank you," she choked out. "Thank you... thank you..."

Grey’s brows furrowed.

He still had absolutely no idea what was happening.

"Uh..."

Elowen only cried harder.

Grey exhaled slowly and wrapped an arm around her, patting her back. Whatever this was, apparently it wasn’t the moment for him to point out that he had technically done nothing more impressive than scratch his balls and accidentally understand some floating words.

Around them, most of their own group still hadn’t quite figured out what happened either.

The other Regions had.

One by one, heads tilted toward the sky, expressions twisting with disbelief as they stared at the blazing notification above Melix’s territory.

A hundred percent.

How long had it been? A few minutes?

Even those who understood Angelic better than most couldn’t comprehend how someone had finished that quickly, much less reached perfect comprehension.

Grey’s name wasn’t attached to the achievement, though. As far as anyone could tell, any one of them could have done it. Or maybe it was a combination achievement?

Only Elowen, Mauve, Xerchen, and Grey himself seemed to understand who was responsible.

Before anyone could say a word, Grey felt pressure descend from above.

His expression changed immediately. The Virtueless slipped from his hand.

CLANG.

The rod struck the stone inside their bubble. To anyone watching, it probably looked like Grey had dropped it in fear. In reality, Grey had reacted as quickly as he possibly could.

He didn’t know what was coming, but he knew enough to understand that having The Virtueless on his back while some angel-adjacent existence decided to investigate him was probably a terrible fucking idea.

Maybe distance wouldn’t matter, but maybe it would. Grey wasn’t testing it. He didn’t have lives to waste right now.

White-gold energy wrapped around his body. It coiled over his legs, his arms, his chest, then tightened around his throat.

Grey’s breath caught.

The next instant he was ripped off the ground.

Elowen cried out as he was torn from her grasp, and Grey’s feet dangled several meters above the arena floor while the white-gold bands hauled him directly in front of the floating halo.

’Oh, fuck you.’

The pressure around his throat tightened.

’Seriously? Choking? That’s what we’re doing now?’

The angel lady really had some fucking issues.

"Who are you?"

The halo’s voice rolled through the arena.

Grey’s temper flared almost instantly.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he growled, voice strained through the pressure on his throat. "I passed your stupid test, what the fuck else do you want?"

Several people visibly flinched.

Even those still buried in meditation were jolted awake by the confrontation, their Resonant connections breaking as their heads snapped upward. Only Veyrath remained unmoving.

The Fire Elemental sat in complete stillness, his attention locked onto the Angelic text before him as though Grey being strangled by a divine halo wasn’t worth noticing. Either that, or he was so immersed in his resonance that he couldn’t sense anything outside of his bubble.

Everyone else looked at Grey like he had finally lost his mind. Did this idiot know who he was talking to?

The halo didn’t answer. Instead, pain tore through Grey’s body.

His eyes widened.

The white-gold threads sank into him. They pierced his skin, his nerves, his Frame, crawling deeper as though invisible fingers were digging through his body looking for something.

Grey’s teeth clenched and then Prometheus flickered.

Grey understood immediately.

His mind moved.

The Neural Frame in his head became a shifting series of logic gates. Every time one of the halo’s threads passed into one region, another closed. When it changed direction, Grey opened a different path.

The timing had to be perfect.

Too fast, and it would look artificial. Too slow, and the halo would find what Prometheus was trying to hide.

Grey stopped thinking about what clever bullshit he could say next and suddenly his mind accelerated.

It was almost frightening.

His Neural Frame became a house of mirrors, every path reflecting into another, every corridor creating the illusion of depth far beyond what should have existed.

Except it wasn’t entirely an illusion.

The halo seemed to interpret the reflections as false extensions, tricks designed to make Grey’s Frame appear larger than it really was.

But Grey’s Frame really was that large and really was that complicated. He was using the truth to sell the lie. Every reflection borrowed something real, then distorted it just enough to make the halo doubt what it was seeing.

Prometheus flickered again and Grey reacted to the instruction.

The halo’s intent became easier to read with every passing second, and as Grey understood what it was searching for, something clicked deep in his mind.

’The Multi-Frame.’

Prometheus didn’t want it exposed. That realization pulled everything together.

Grey’s control sharpened.

The threads chased one path and found another. They entered one Frame and somehow returned to what looked like the same one from a different angle. Then they became tangled and confused.

Then the two slammed into one another inside him.

Grey coughed up a mouthful of blood and pain exploded through his chest.

For a moment his concentration nearly shattered and rage burned through him so hot that it felt like another Frame entirely.

’This fucking bitch is going to kill me.’

Every instinct told him to lash out but Grey forced all of it down. Contrary to popular belief, it was rare, but he could control himself sometimes.

The halo probed again and Grey redirected again.

And then again.

And then again.

His vision blurred, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth while his Neural Frame screamed under the strain.

Then, finally, the pressure vanished and the halo threw him away.

Grey hit the ground hard enough to bounce.

CRACK.

He skidded across the stone, bones screaming, skin tearing, until his body finally rolled to a stop.

For several seconds, Grey didn’t move.

Everything hurt.

His breath came shallowly and his hands trembled against the ground, his finger nails cracked and chipped.

But beneath all of it, buried deeper than the pain, was fury. For once, Grey had done exactly what he was told, and this was what he got for it.

And wasn’t that how this had always fucking gone? From the start, did he ask to have his Nexis Suit not fit? Did he ask to be targeted by the Producers? Did he fucking ask to become public enemy number one in his own damned Zone when they should have been the people who supported him the most?

"Fuck this." Grey growled.

Grey reached out a hand and The Virtueless was ripped off the ground from the distance, slapping into his palm with such a resounding thud it sounded like a gong had gone off.

"Tell your husband he better fucking wake up and stop being a bitch. If you don’t work like you’re supposed to, we’re all going to die right here. I’m not standing for this shit."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!